Professor evaluates Hawaii's seed crop industry

Prahlad Kasturi

Prahlad Kasturi, chair of RU's Department of Economics, has co-published a report detailing his research into Hawaii’s seed crop industry. The study was published by the National Agricultural Statistical Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Kasturi’s research with Thomas Loudat, president of TAL & Associates of Honolulu, is an update of 2006 and 2009 studies by the researchers of the crop industry’s economic and fiscal contributions to the state of Hawaii.

The research provides background information about the technology used by the industry on the local and national level, details Hawaii's seed crop industry with comparisons to the state's other sectors and subsectors, and evaluates the economic contributions of the seed crop industry.

"Our primary research conclusion is that Hawaii's seed crop industry makes significant, ever-increasing economic and fiscal contributions to the state's economy generally and, most particularly, to the agriculture, life sciences and high technology subsectors," Kasturi and Loudat summarize. "These contributions are most significant in rural Hawaii relative to other economic subsectors. Seed crop industry economic contributions to the state should continue to increase, albeit at a slower rate than historically."